Alot To Be Said For...

America frequently goes on a nostalgia kick and rediscovers artists and acts who were popular "back in the day".  And once in a generation, it seems like for a season all attention will converge on one particular artist or act.  At the beginning of the milennium, all attention was focused on The Band, and I must have seen The Last Waltz eleventy-eight million times, between USA Network, MTV and VH1.

The latest "It" artist seems to be Dolly Parton.  We had a Holly Dolly Christmas, Dolly contributed $1,000,000 to Covid Research, Dolly turned down the Medal Of Freedom, the highest US civilian honor.  All of a sudden, Dolly Parton is everywhere -- it's like the 70's all over again!

So guess who I'm gonna talk about?  Yep, Dolly.

Of course, growing up in the 70's, with the opinion of my stepfascist being that country music was the only music worth listening to, (read: the only kind we were allowed to listen to), in our house Dolly Parton got alot of airplay.

The highest compliment I ever give to a person is "There's alot to be said for (name)."  Well, there's alot to be said for Dolly Parton.

She started out dirt-poor.  She moved to Nashville the day after she graduated from high school and quickly began succeeding as a songwriter.  Elvis wanted to record I Will Always Love You, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, required all songwriters to surrender half the publishing rights before Elvis would record their songs.  Dolly said no.  Can you imagine?  You are a brand-new songwriter, just cutting your teeth, and one of the most successful performers of all time wants to record your song, the only catch is doing so will result in you giving up half of your profits on that song.  Forever.  But making this deal will give you your first (huge) visibility.  Do you say no?  How much guts, how much faith in yourself and your talent do you have to have to do that?!  Brass ones on that lady!

Of course, like me, she wears those brass ones high on the chest ;)

As everyone knows, Dolly went on to soar in the stratosphere of entertainment, with dozens of hit songs on both the country and pop charts; collaborations with Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette (probably a slew of others I'm not remembering); eight movies, seven books and countless awards.

What brought Dolly back to my attention after all this time was a convo I had with Melissa Pedersen, she who has gotten me into some awesome Americana music lately.  Melissa noted that I seemed to "perk my head up" every time a band called The Wailin' Jennys played.  I remarked that I liked their harmonies, and Melissa enthused, "Oh, yeah?  Then you'll love this song," and proceeded to direct me to their recording of "Light Of A Clear Blue Morning", which, unbeknownst to my friend, was written and also sung by Dolly Parton back in the 70's.  I played The Jennys version.  It was pretty, rather ethereal in style.  But compare it to Dolly's tour-de-force -- starts out soft, uplifting lyrics, a little perfect vibrato, electrifying percussion, and then rockin' it out and taking it home.  What a song!  Hear for yourself:

This version was a revelation to Melissa, who otherwise was only familiar with Dolly's more pop-flavored and collaborative work -- think Islands In The Stream with Kenny Rogers, and Trio with Ronstadt and Harris -- so now while I get more into The Wailin' Jennys, Melissa is taking a backwards journey to 70's Dolly (as well as to 1999's Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a Ronstadt/Harris collab, which features a more eclectic sound than anything they did with Parton).

Yes, alot to be said for Dolly Parton!

"Not Guilty" ≠ Innocent...

 ...It = The GOP has no balls

Except for these seven Republican Senators:

Richard Burr, NC

Bill Cassidy, LA

Susan Collins, ME

Lisa Murkowski, AK

Mitt Romney, UT

Ben Sasse, NE

Pat Toomey, PA

It goes without saying that this blogger cheers these seven courageous Senators.  It also goes without saying they will reap a mess, for no good deed goes unpunished in the political world.  In fact, six out of the seven are already being censured.

According to our local CBS affiliate, Toomey will be censured by GOP chairs of at least five PA counties for obeying his conscience.

"We did not send him there to vote his conscience," said Dave Ball, Washington County chair.  "We did not send him there to do the right thing, or whatever he said he was doing.  We sent him there to represent us, and we feel very strongly he did not represent us."  Apparently it didn't occur to this genius that the punctilious Toomey may have surveyed his constituents, and may have done what the majority wanted.  After all, 58% of Americans surveyed believed Trump should have been convicted.

Out of the seven, Senator Murkowski's thoughts were made most apparent.  Here is her statement from Saturday after the vote was taken:

"On January 13, when the U.S. House of Representatives impeached former President Donald J. Trump for a second time, I committed to upholding my oath as a U.S. Senator—to listen to each side impartially, review all the facts, and then decide how I would vote. I have done that and after listening to the trial this past week, I have reached the conclusion that President Trump’s actions were an impeachable offense and his course of conduct amounts to incitement of insurrection as set out in the Article of Impeachment.  

“The facts make clear that the violence and desecration of the Capitol that we saw on January 6 was not a spontaneous uprising. President Trump had set the stage months before the 2020 election by stating repeatedly that the election was rigged, casting doubt into the minds of the American people about the fairness of the election. After the election, when he lost by 7 million votes, he repeatedly claimed that the election was stolen and subjected to widespread fraud. At the same time, election challenges were filed in dozens of courts. Sixty-one different courts – including many judges nominated by President Trump himself – ruled against him.

“President Trump did everything in his power to stay in power. When the court challenges failed, he turned up the pressure on state officials and his own Department of Justice. And when these efforts failed, he turned to his supporters. He urged his supporters to come to Washington, D.C. on January 6 to ‘Stop the Steal’ of an election that had not been stolen. The speech he gave on that day was intended to stoke passions in a crowd that the President had been rallying for months. They were prepared to march on the Capitol and he gave them explicit instructions to do so.

“When President Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol, breached both chambers of Congress, and interrupted the certification of Electoral College votes, he took no action for hours. The evidence presented at the trial was clear: President Trump was watching events unfold live, just as the entire country was. Even after the violence had started, as protestors chanted ‘Hang Mike Pence’ inside the Capitol, President Trump, aware of what was happening, tweeted that the Vice President had failed the country. Vice President Pence was attempting to fulfill his oath and his constitutional duty with the certification of Electoral College votes. 

“After the storm had calmed, the President endorsed the actions of the mob by tweeting, ‘These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!’ This message, in defense of only himself, came nearly four hours after the attack on the Capitol began. President Trump allowing the violence to go on for hours without any clear directive or demand for peace – his intentional silence – cost Americans their lives. President Trump was not concerned about the Vice President; he was not concerned about members of Congress; he was not concerned about the Capitol Police. He was concerned about his election and retaining power. While I supported subpoenaing witnesses to help elucidate for the American people President Trump’s state of mind during the riot, both his actions and lack thereof establish that.

“If months of lies, organizing a rally of supporters in an effort to thwart the work of Congress, encouraging a crowd to march on the Capitol, and then taking no meaningful action to stop the violence once it began is not worthy of impeachment, conviction, and disqualification from holding office in the United States, I cannot imagine what is. By inciting the insurrection and violent events that culminated on January 6, President Trump’s actions and words were not protected free speech. I honor our constitutional rights and consider the freedom of speech as one of the most paramount freedoms, but that right does not extend to the President of the United States inciting violence.

“Before someone assumes the office of the presidency, they are required to swear to faithfully execute the office of the President and to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. President Trump – the nation’s elected leader, the Commander in Chief of our armed forces – swore an oath to defend America and all that we hold sacred. He failed to uphold that oath.

“One positive outcome of the horrible events on January 6, was that hours after the Capitol was secured, on January 7, at 4:00 a.m., Congress fulfilled our responsibility to the U.S. Constitution and certified the Electoral College results. We were able to do that because of brave men and women who fulfilled their oath to protect and defend Congress. I regret that Donald Trump was not one of them.”

Well said, Senator.  And may I add something I have been remiss in not saying all these weeks:  I admire the way Vice President Pence conducted himself on January 6, and since.  Pence was, from all accounts, the one who called in the National Guard on to quell the uprising on January 6, when Trump wouldn't.  And word has it that Pence did more to direct the transition to the Biden Administration than the whole rest of the Trump administration put together.  If anyone since the January 6 jacquerie had a right to turn on his (now former) boss and bad-mouth him, it's Mike Pence.  Is Pence just being (rather misplaced) loyal?  Or thinking ahead to 2024?  Perhaps.  But I admire his statesmanship and his discretion, even if I rarely agree with his politics.

America has a lot to think about.  Some of which we will discuss in the coming weeks.

Round Two

So yesterday opened the process by which Donald Trump finds himself caught yet a second time.  Will the Republicans vote to convict?  Doesn't look like it.

Your Crusading Blogger partnered, before the fall elections, with the Lincoln Project.  The Lincoln Project is a group of former Republicans who see "Trumpism" as this blogger does, a very dangerous movement, and an affront to true Conservatism.  True Conservatism being what true Conservatives see as a necessary counterbalance to excessive Liberalism.  Those in the Lincoln Project have dedicated themselves to Trumpism's defeat.  And to the holding accountable of Trump and his enablers.  You can check them out here.  And also here:

There is, of course, the question of the constitutionality of impeaching a president who is no longer in office.  My common sense tells me we must determine for future reference who has the authority to make this decision, once and for all, and this decision should be made forthwith!  This blogger opines that if this impeachment is unconstitutional, then the Constitution should be amended.  If you stole from your workplace (a violation of the rules of every workplace), your workplace would fire you.  But they would still have the option (and would choose to execute that option if your offense is egregious enough, like stealing or inciting insurrection) of prosecuting you, even though you no longer work there.  They would have, and would exercise this option, in order to hold you accountable for stealing, to receive recompense, and to show any and all present and future employees that we do not steal from Claudia's Cod Cannery, for example.

Apparently we have reached a point in our republic where we must spell out that a president cannot commit crimes in the last weeks of his term, and expect to escape unpunished because some feel "it is unconstitutional to prosecute someone who is no longer serving as president".   It is also worth remembering that these folks were prosecuted for war crimes in some cases 70+ years after they committed them.  Why should the leader of the free world get off any easier for inciting insurrection?  And if we have any doubt that the events in the Capitol January 6 were at the behest of Donald J Trump, all we need to do is read this.

I understand that there are some who feel that the US did not hold a fair election in November.  There are those who believe that Trump is still our legitimate president, despite his attorneys not presenting a shred of credible evidence of election fraud in (61 repudiated of) 62 total lawsuits.  Sadly there is no way to satisfy these folks.  Ultimately, history will prove them wrong.  But right now, they believe something was stolen from them.  They don't feel that Republican leadership enabled Trump by echoing and repeating his election lies endlessly, because they don't believe they are lies.  And they don't believe that Trump's exhortations to the Capitol crowd January 6 to fight was inciting the crowd to insurrection and violence because obviously we should fight (non-violently, in a legal manner) when something has been stolen from us.

This is why it is necessary to hold a trial, so that the truth comes out.  And I doubt we are prepared for the truths that are going to come out when some movers and shakers write "the inside story" of these times.   But I digress...

Some folks, mostly those on the right hand side of the aisle, seem to want to gloss over the consequences of these recent events, for the sake of "unity".  And this is what gets me the most, and it is something I want to address.

In America most of us are raised to do right.  We are told that if we do right, generally, we will be rewarded.  And if we do wrong, we are told, we can expect to be punished, so that we will learn to do right in the future.  This is what we are told, in general it is what we experience, and it is what we expect to see happen when someone else does wrong.  Whenever something else occurs, our sense of justice is outraged.

I remember in the early 80's the first time I talked about being molested by my stepfather.  My mother wanted him punished and we talked about it with her divorce attorney.  From him we learned that I would have to go up in front of a judge, answer a lot of unpleasant questions and remember events I really wanted to forget.  And that in all likelihood, John would not see much, if any jail time.  It seemed like all the impetus would be upon me, with very little rate of return.  I decided I had been through enough and passed.  After all, I reasoned, he was gone from my life, wasn't he?  It was all over.

(Wishful thinking.  In my 20's and 30's I worked hard to get through the trauma of my childhood.  I cannot possibly overstate the struggle.  I read, watched, listened to everything I could about alcoholism, child abuse, molestation, wife battering and verbal abuse, all of which my mother and I experienced in 13 years with my stepfather.  I still suffer from anxiety, depression and PTSD.  My cortisol has evidently always been high, no end in sight.  I have health issues traceable to my childhood).

In the late 80's, I was very angry.  It seemed to me that through no fault of my own I had been made to suffer.  Meanwhile, as far as I could see, my abuser had gotten off scot-free.  (As you read on this blog in December, I know now it was more complicated than that).  The legal system in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had never held my stepfather accountable.  Bad things happen when people aren't held accountable for grievous wrongs.  I found that I wasn't the first person my stepfather molested.  Or the last.  How responsible I felt when I found that out!  How guilty.  Now mind you, no one had ever told me that John was likely to re-offend when I was making the decision not to prosecute.  If they had, I would had been more courageous.  Taken the long view.  I would have run the gamut to hold my stepfather accountable and see to it that he received whatever punishment the law was willing to mete out.  And worked with those who make the laws to make sure in the future, the punishment fit the crime.  Just to give us all a fighting chance that by holding my stepfather accountable, he would not re-offend.  Or at very least to provide a mechanism by which to warn potential victims and their families, and to clue law enforcement in to the concept of keeping an eye on him.  Now we have Megan's Law but back then we had nothing.

That's what we need the Senate to do now.  This country needs to stand for justice.  For the victims.  Who are the victims here?  Those killed and injured, and their families.  Democracy.  The health of our republic.

Hold 'em accountable, the whole lot!  Trump, his cohorts in dishonesty, and those that went down to DC on their say-so and did a little Kristallnacht.  It's not right to only punish the last group.  This needs to be done as a catharsis for those of us who watched the ugly events of January 6, 2021, and to take our country back to where we were before we got off course.  Before we get more off course.  Or, God forbid, witness a repeat.